Every other week during the football season, Erasmus Hall star senior quarterback/safety Wayne Morgan, the most highly touted football player in New York City, takes us into his life and times. In this exclusive NYPost.com diary, Morgan, ranked in the top 150 in the country by scouting services, details everything from practices and games to recruiting, as told to Marc Raimondi.
This year, we played at Clinton twice – against Clinton and Lehman. When we were driving to Clinton, we’d always pass Yankee Stadium. We would clap and chant whenever we saw it. Getting there was our goal from Day One.
On Wednesday morning, we didn’t pass Yankee Stadium. We pulled up to it and we were just reminiscing about clapping on our way to Clinton. Now that we’re here, it’s great.
Beating Tottenville in the semifinals Saturday earned us a trip to Yankee Stadium and Wednesday we were there for a pre-game press conference. We got to walk on the field. Me and my teammates took a lot of pictures. The championship game is Tuesday night at 5 p.m. against Lincoln.
It’s a great experience. We’re gonna cherish this moment, because it only comes around once. You gotta cherish things like that and just be happy. It’s a great feeling being here, but I want to make it a better feeling by winning.
It feels real good, because we’ve been working so hard. I don’t think any team works harder than us. I know a lot of people say that, but we worked real hard and we came a long way. We came from nothing and now we’re here.
I never doubted my team – even when we were 1-2. That’s not the kind of person I am. I’m a competitor. If I’m doing something, I’m doing something to win. Every season I play, I just wanted to win. Everything I do, I just want to win. I never really counted us out. We all talk 24/7 and we just talk about Yankee Stadium and everyone was focused on that. I knew we were gonna get here.
The only thing bothering me right now is that Shaquell Jackson is injured. He hurt his knee against Tottenville and isn’t going to get to play at Yankee Stadium with us. I feel badly for him. I called him when we were on the field and told him what we were doing, taking pictures, stuff like that.
That’s my best friend. I’ve been with him since we started. But he’s a tough guy. We just gotta get this win for him.
To do that our defense has gotta play great like we’ve been doing. Our offense just has to make plays and we’ll be good. Everybody’s focused. Everybody’s calm. We’re saying don’t get nervous, don’t get rattled about the crowd. It’s gonna be good.
We were all talking about it on the bus, like we did it. We’re here. Now we just gotta get it done.
This is Wayne Morgan’s final diary.